President Trump: The NEW one and only politics thread

My hometown best friend, his mother sort of half-assed worked at an old Mom/Pop restaurant/motel in Shallotte, NC, many years ago. I and my family were vacationing at Ocean Isle Beach one summer, and she got him a free room there so he could visit us. He didn't think much about it until she let slip that the reason she'd been able to get that room for free was because a guy had committed suicide in it earlier in the week.

My friend slept on the sofa in our rental house.

 

The Park Inn on Route 9 in Newton. I wouldn't call it a "very nice hotel" it was fine -- kind of at the level of a decent Hampton Inn. Never stayed there myself (I've lived in the Boston area for more than 20 years -- no need to) but I used to go the Barnes & Noble and get coats and suits for work at the Milton's on the strip right next door for years (saw Wes Chamberlain, who was on the Sox at the time, getting clothes there just before the baseball strike in the summer of '94 -- I told him I'd be happy to play if he didn't want to -- I was 24 at the time, though I'm in better shape now. He laughed). Ultimately the hotel closed down. I think there are apartments or condos on that site now. Most renters or owners would have no idea what was there before and I can't imagine a broker would tell them. I still pass by there all the time -- it's always creepy and jarring to look at one of the most mundane spots in an upscale but mundane suburban retail corridor and think about how the one singular historic event in my living memory that I can truly say changed everything started in that spot. [Shudder]

 

We got married at Mandalay Bay. I'd stay there again.

 

It's my favorite resort on the strip. If this makes prices go down, I'm there. (I usually stay at the Monte Carlo, which is sort of like Mandalay Bay Lite.)

 

My buddies and I got a good deal at the Ambassador Hotel in Milwaukee for a Brewers game. Turns out it's the hotel where Jeffrey Dahmer killed his first victim, and still has a stigma.

 

I'd still rather stay there than this weird hotel I got stuck at in Clayton, Mo., a couple weeks after the attack when I was in St. Louis to profile the execs at Enterprise for a feature on their online rental management system (depressing-ass assignment - not what I dreamed about when I grew up wanting to be a long-form magzine writer). The place was on an ugly commercial strip but had a medieval English manor theme -- not just the lobby but all the rooms and every spot in the hallways. More scary than charming. I didn't sleep a wink that night. I was already suffering extreme anxiety -- 9/11 triggered a lot of "what am I doing with my life in this job and career I hate" and "am I going to get blown up in the sky on one of these flights?" and "am I going to get laid off in a rapidly deteriorating economy that's affecting pubs just line mine?" existential anxiety that was causing me severe insomnia at home. It was much worse on the road -- especially in a hotel where it felt like a deranged monk or highwayman was waiting around the corner.

 

Not sure what was around that Holiday Inn Express in Waltham back then -- but it's built up a lot since then with some decent food/drink establishments (Jake & Joe's Sports Bar, Copper House Tavern among others -- and not far from a complex with a Capital Grille). Lots of good spots on Main Street and Moody Street in Waltham too.

 

I lived in an apartment in my hometown that had been the site of a notoriously heinous murder in my hometown when I was in fourth grade. (Look it up - Windy Gallagher, killed by a serial killer.) Not the same unit, but very close.

To me, though, they were just the Crestviews, where Grandma used to live.

Didn’t fill Mrs. Whitman in on the history, though.

 

You should have stayed at a Hampton Inn. Much better than "decent."

 

I have friends who stay almost exclusively at Mandalay. I'd be surprised if that changes. Frequent Vegas visitors tend to be pretty loyal, especially if they play enough to get hooked up with a host. (And if the prices drop enough, cheap bastards like me who usually just stay at the Flamingo or Bally's might be enticed to try Mandalay.)

I assume, however, that the 32nd floor will have a high vacancy rate.